Are you prepared?

Are you prepared?

When should you start applying to companies?

I’ve seen people trying to apply to game companies for a position after just getting out of retail. This is probably not the greatest way. You must have some sort of background that can support why you should be in the industry. For artist, do you have a strong portfolio? For management, do you have past managing experiences somewhere? Interning is a great way to get your foot in the industry if you’re just starting out. If you could land one, great! You got your foot in the door. If you’re also thinking about dipping your feet into what game development is like, there’s a huge modding community out there that wants to make their own modded games. Find those and work with a team to create something. It helps with your resume to have that sort of experience too. There’s a lot of different ways to get into the game industry.

Portfolio

This is pretty simple. Put your best out there and leave the rest behind. If you feel like you don’t have enough really good ones, start working on it. Companies expect the best people to come in and what shows is your portfolio. This mainly goes for art. There’s been multiple times where people make it to the interview process and bring in more art to show off which are not that great (Quick sketches, work in progress, etc). Quality over quantity boys and girls. If the people who are interviewing you start seeing less attractive work than what you’ve shown through your initial portfolio, highly likely they will not want to continue with you. Put your highest quality of work and maintain it throughout the entire process. Repeat this out loud to yourself right now, “QUALITY over QUANTITY”. This might save you a job in the future.

Mental Health & Attitude

This seems minor but I believe it’s super important. I know life has it’s ups and downs. Everyone at different age goes through different scenarios in their life. Not everyone has upbeat and positive personalities neither. If you’re positive, friendly, and have great attitude with others around you, you’re on your way. If you are cynical, negative, and/or don’t get along with people in general, take a second to reflect on how you appear to other people around you. Why is this important? You work with these people 8+ hours a day, 5 times a week. That’s a lot of time that you spend in your life with your coworkers. Positive attitude is motivating and more fun to be around, whereas negative attitude does the opposite. When you go into an interview, people will get a glimpse of who you are. If they see that you give off negative vibes, people won’t want you on their team.

Be positive, constructive, optimistic, and professional!

Money

Make sure you read over The Money section and have a realistic goal of how much money you need to make. This will help you avoid things like losing money while you’re working at the company and what not. I’ve gone through it and it was a nightmare. This is something that comes up last, when the offer is on the table, but it’s really good to have something in mind.